Civilization VI (Switch) Revisit

 

And Atlas shrugged! (Don't know if it said in the book since I've never read it, Objectionist theories never really vibed with me)

Decided to revisit the game in the wait for the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom. And I got all the DLC and such so it would be fun to try it out... and they just released the news that Civilization VII is on their way. So perfect time to try out to see what it is like if I would try the next game.

I tried starting the huge world map with fixed starting points and marathon mode. Slow as hell, each turn took a minute to load and such. Started as Japan and thought it would be rather easy as you where on an island. Worked fine until 2 barbarians galleys showed up and wrecked my fishing industries. So I restarted with the standard Earth without fixed starting points so suddenly the empire of Japan starts in the north of Italy.

Still a bit slow so I had to google up what one could do, so I limited the autosave and took away animations and such. Wished I could get still pictures of the other leaders, but hey, it worked a lot better, even if it's still a lesson in patience. So I began conquering most of Europe and from Spain bridged into Marocco and then Arabia lost control of one city that wanted to belong to me. And then I used my military might to conquer other cities that have rebelled so I had a bridge from Turkey to India. Meanwhile I sent settlers to Australia and from there taking every island I could get my hand of. I only lost one city which was Tokyo that I settled on Cuba, but they rebelled and went to Poland that had all of North America. 

In the end I was able to snag a diplomatic victory by paying 5000 gold to each civilisation that had an emergency which if you win grants you two points. I think the final point came from an olympic event after I put every city on getting champions. My enemies tried to negate it by voting for me to loose 2 point every Session of the World Governments, but they should have fixed their environmental problems and stop Global Warming... I guess this is the reason it's seen as "woke" by some groups on the internet. Still, I won on prince level without cheating... except when I reloaded a save before I declared war on Mongolia in protection of a city state and I got wrecked. Lesson learned, don't care about the smaller states unless you have a very big army.

Tried the huge world map with the fixed starting points so it worked a lot better. Sadly the volcano near Kyoto erupted 5 times within something like 10-15 turns so that was a very big problem for me. Overall it was fun getting into again. Took me a bit, but when I got into how to micromanage cities and such it became a very interesting game. But I might not feel like everything works fine, for example districts and that is mostly due to my inability to get rid of ones that doesn't work or is standing on precious resources. I had two damn oil fields being locked out as districts was on them. I mean, how was I supposed to know in the Middle Ages that my harbor in Scotland or Entertainment District in the Sahara would end up on oil fields in the modern era? Lucky two others was accessible, but that was on my new Australia colony. I think I lost another resource in the Ruhr Area, but I never understood what it was.

Overall, still fun all these years later. Will I be getting VII when it releases? Probably not, the Switch hardly can manage this game and no offence to the actress being the narrator, but I don't have the same relation to her as Leonard Nemoy or Sean Bean. Although Leonard Nemoy is still the better choice.  Lucky Zelda stopped me doing just one more turn.

Civilization VI (Switch)

L'État, c'est moi.

I was a short time obsessed with Civilization, played the original with my best friend in school, and then I read about the fourth game in the gaming magazine Super Play where two of the writers reported about their game against each others. They never finished it but it caught my attention and then I asked and got Civilization IV for PC for my birthday/Christmas. As usual when playing games that actually needs a bit of thinking there is a learning curve that for IV took me a long time to get. Maybe I was to young (or rather to stupid) at the time, think it took the second expansion getting out that I bought before it really got fun since I then discovered how to change which tiles each city was supposed to use to boost either production, gold or population. Rather important since I before that just let the cities go on auto and if you wanna beat the AI, you gotta prioritise. 

Now, the fourth game was fun, it had Leonard Nimoy as the narrator. Then I heard Sean Bean was the narrator for this game and then that the expansions where heading for the Switch so I caved in and got it. First off, getting to know the controls was a bit weird, but playing it in handheld mode allowed me to use the touch screen so it helps. Secondly, the game is working pretty much as the fourth one so not that hard to adjust. The problem is probably all that is new and more subtle that I probably need to get before making a fool of me. At least I notice certain differences. Like, no more water transportation ships just to get settlers, soldiers or workers across the islands if you start, say, in Japan. Also, the workers are limited to a minimum of 3 actions before disappearing. Forcing you to constantly make new ones... and I have no problem with that since it limits it instead of the 10 workers you had in IV just waiting for the next city being founded or finding a new discovery that forces you to build a mine on a farm or changing all roads to rails.

Talking about discoveries, they implemented national wonders that you can find around the world, doing certain things enables you to gain advantage for research and you can choose to research one discovery and if it needs something researched before it puts it in the fastest way to get there. Simplicity. I haven't played it that much since there isn't really a point since it's an endless game, you always feel the need for just one more turn. Mostly been playing the actual earth and Rome and Japan since it was the civilisations I played the most in fourth. Bit surprised that it wasn't Caesar and Tokugawa, but hey, more people to learn about. Also rather many new civilisations that I haven't seen before. Haven't played V so they might have been there. Game crashed on me once when I tried to check if it was me that offered peace or if it was Australia and I had to pay for it. It isn't that clear if they mean me or him when they use My and Their. Still, I just gotta... play one more turn.